This month CM Lowry is talking to Matt Beighton, writer and game designer, about The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams in ‘This Book I Read...’
Topics covered include:
The proper pronunciation of Matt's surname, along with how to pronounce the names of various small towns in England!
Matt describes
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy as: 'A surrealist quest across the galaxy, full of madness, satirical takedowns of 1980s Britain and a whole load of nonsense for 1500 pages'.
Matt shares some of his favourite quotes, that illustrate Adam's surrealist approach and strange obsessions (such as with towels!)
Nothing really matters - The main protagonist, Arthur Dent, doesn't learn anything over the course of five books. Adam's takes a very novel approach in that there is no redemptive story arc.
Adams is indulging a joke - authors never get to just go off on three page tangents, but He does. This is pretty unique and takes a certain disciple - to purposefully not develop the characters at all.
The Probability Drive & Adams' amazing mastery of the
Deus Es Machina writing device - explaining things away but in really bold and exciting ways rather than it feeling like lazy or boring writing.
Matt discussed some of the aspects of the book that are somewhat problematic now, including how dates some of the cultural references (digital watches?) feel now.
The tedium of reading some of the rambling, longer and stranger passages. Reading all five books …
This month CM Lowry is talking to his childhood hero Elizabeth Laird - globetrotter, adventurer and author. They talk all about her life and how it has influenced the many books she has written in ‘This Book I Read...’
Topics covered include:
Elizabeth's 1989 children's book,
Crackers, and the important role in played in CM Lowry's journey into writing and publishing
Becoming an author, and career changes in general, later in life and how it's never too late to try something new
Using life experiences as inspiration for writing
Befriending the street children of Addis Ababa and taking them for road trips in her car on Saturdays
Haile Selassie's pet Lion
Living in places where cataclysmic things are happening & how that influences the creative process
Dodging bullets in Lebanon and getting a seat on the last plane out at the civil war kicked off
How our childhood reading stays with us for life & meeting her hero Geoffrey Trease.
Letting the characters come to life and dictate how you write the story
Elizabeth also left us with some wonderful life advice
Read: Everything you can get your hands on
Listen: To everything and make notes. The best writers listen to conversation in order to learn how to write dialogue
Write: Everyday. Keep a journal
Live: Do things, take risks, don't be afraid to really live
Links to things we discussed:
Elizabeth's first novel
Red Sky in the Morning
Elizabeth Laird -
The Garbage King
Roald Dahl - …
Welcome to Episode 8 of ‘What Is Roleplay?!
This episode we are joined by James D'Amato to discuss Personal Play
An important, yet often undiscussed, topic - personal play encompasses anything in game play that you do on your own - things like world building, rolling dice to create a character, and writing character backstories.
The realisation that roleplaying isn't just the time we spend around a table with other people.
'Play' is something that we are encouraged to grow out of as we reach adulthood - in reality it is fun and therapeutic for adults too!
Personal play as a good option for folks who don't get to game with others as often as they'd like.
Links to things we discussed:
Games:
Dungeons & Dragons
The Traveller RPG
MÖRK BORG
We Sail Beyond
Microscope
Paranoia
Spire
In The Blue Light
Skyjacks
Illimat Boardgame
Books, Authors & Publishers:
Adams Media
The Die Decides by CM Lowry
Rowan, Rook & Decard
Odd Jobs: RPG Micro-settings Vol. 1 by Sasha Sienna & Jonathan Sims
MacGuffin & Co Publishers
Loot The Room
Tim Clare
The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide, Expanded Genres Edition by James D’Amato
Podcasts:
The One Shot Podcast
The Skyjacks Podcast
Rusty Quill Podcast
More about James
James D'Amato Twitter -
@OneShotRPG
Find James' book here -
The Ultimate RPG Gameplay
With music generously provided by:
Powerplant & Imploders.
Welcome to the very first episode of our Beyond Cataclysm podcast – ‘This Book I Read...’
This episode Dave is talking to author CM Lowry about The Day Of The Triffids by John Wyndham
Topics covered include:
Our parent's bookshelves.
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris and his many pseudonyms.
The heritage of the book in the post apocalyptic genre.
How progressive views at-the-time become conservative when viewed 70 years on.
The book's approaches to misogynism & polyamorism.
The 50 year anniversary sequel and whether it's good... or bad.
Links to things we discussed:
Beyond Cataclysm –
beyondcataclysm.co.uk
Visions Press –
visionspressdiy.bandcamp.com
Find CM Lowry Author at
allaboutchris.org
28 Days Later - 2002 Horror Film directed by Danny Boyle.
Wanderers In Time by John Beynon
The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham
Music throughout written and performed by CM Lowry
Background sound effects from Freesound.org
https://freesound.org/people/Philip%20Goddard/sounds/180908/
https://freesound.org/people/kwahmah_02/sounds/268790/
Welcome to the very first episode of our semi-regular Beyond Cataclysm podcast – ‘What is Roleplay?’
This episode we are joined by author CM Lowry to discuss:
A very loose definition of ‘role play’ and how we’ve all done it in real life
Some basic terms you’ll need to know like
RPG (Role Play Game),
GM (Games Master), and
PC (Player Character)
The various dice you might come across (featuring too many dice rolling sounds!)
The mechanics of
Stats
We even do a little bit of live "actual play" role play, which we think makes for pretty fun listening.
Links to things we discussed:
Beyond Cataclysm –
beyondcataclysm.co.uk
Visions Press –
visionspressdiy.bandcamp.com
CM Lowry Author –
allaboutchris.org
Tyrannosaur Inside Kickstarter -
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmlowry/tyrannosaur-inside-a-monstrous-quest-inside-a-giant-t-rex
All Outta Bubblegum RPG -
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c9vhigdldvg8ji4/AllOuttaBubblegum.pdf?dl=0
Lasers & Feelings RPG -
http://www.onesevendesign.com/laserfeelings/
With music generously provided by:
Powerplant & Imploders.
